Kapadia has crafted an intimate character study of the man that puts almost as much emphasis on his spirituality, his doubts and his relationship with his country as it does on his ability to drive a fast car.

| May 3, 2024

This is not just a good film - it's a great film: fascinating, exciting, nerve-wracking and profoundly moving.

| Aug 31, 2018

Captivating, chilling, and surprisingly sublime.

| Original Score: A- | Sep 9, 2011

"Senna" is simply the greatest sports film I have ever seen.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 2, 2011

A psychologically intriguing if at times too hagiographic portrait of a man who often held pole position in his profession and felt nearer to God because of it.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 26, 2011

Undeniably gripping stuff.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 26, 2011

"Senna" is carefully edited and makes sometimes spectacular use of extensive home movies and videos.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 25, 2011

You don't have to know anything about car racing at all. Instead, you simply have to like a great story, one that has all the elements: drama, inspiration, competition, victory, defeat, betrayal and, looming above it all, tragedy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 25, 2011

It's stripped of narration, talking heads, and anything else that might threaten to slow it down.

| Aug 22, 2011

Even if you can't tell Formula One from Grecian Formula, Senna is pretty exciting stuff.

| Original Score: B- | Aug 19, 2011

Most interesting for the way its construction builds on the inherent austerity of auto racing.

| Aug 19, 2011

Real life eclipses fiction in delivering a tale that combines heroism, villainy, suspense and a surprising amount of emotional resonance.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 19, 2011

What makes "Senna" essential viewing is the propulsive education it provides in one of the world's most popular sports, and the introduction it provides to an extraordinary athlete and human being.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 19, 2011

The new documentary Senna has all the full-throttle momentum and sweeping emotion any big-budget feature could hope for.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 19, 2011

Kapadia is working with an embarrassment of riches, but to his credit he selects wisely, and has the good sense to keep the talking heads off the screen.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 19, 2011

Senna feels a touch too short to be fully realized -- but then again, so was Ayrton Senna's life.

| Aug 18, 2011

Senna is earnest, eloquent, and impossibly charismatic, and his rocketing ascension through the ranks of professional drivers - gunning his car at more than 200 m.p.h. down the straightaways - is something to behold.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 18, 2011

The movie's assemblage of audio interviews poured mostly over astounding race footage is fit for a shrine.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 18, 2011

Plays like a narrative feature, juicy and alive, with enough kinetic excitement to hook the Formula One-ignorant (me, I knew next to nothing about the subject), let alone racing fans worldwide.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 18, 2011

"Senna" is a documentary that does the job it sets out to do. I wish it had tried for more.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 18, 2011